Cadillac XLR

I agree they look cool, but the only first hand experience I have with one is watching two guys at a car show spend 20 mins trying to get the top to go up as it was getting cooler. They finally gave up and just drove it home with the top still down. It was facinating to watch all the motors and servos working to fold up that top. It is crazy complex. I think I would have to pass on actually owning one.

WilberM3 wrote:
In reply to M2Pilot:
regular XLR had a 4.6 Northstar, XLR-V used the STS-V's 4.4L supercharged Northstar.

If this is true... Don't care anymore about the car. Me and a buddy of mine were just talking $20K to $25K sportscars and this came up. I was really skeptical of one in the price range but with either of these engines, doesn't matter. Don't care anymore. Id rather have a C5 Z06.

Yeah, thinking of it as a 'vette is a mistake, I think. Sure it's the same platform but then a 4th gen Supra and a GS400 are the same platform. The XLR-V is cool looking, fast, comfy, quiet, gets decent gas mileage.. it's a grand touring car to the Corvette's sports car. They're aimed at different market segments, and obviously the Caddy didn't hit the mark based on the sales but I would rock the heck out of one. If I was spending my money I would buy the 'vette, but still... they're neat and have their own charm.

Funny story I remembered...I watched a tech take an angle grinder to the trunk of a brand-new (45 miles) XLR. This was when it first came out, and the trunk mechanism, which is electrically-activated like the doors, stopped working and the customer's belongings were trapped inside. There was no easy way to get to the trunk from inside the car. The tech called Cadillac and they told him, in so many words, "Order a new trunk lid." Seeing someone cut a square hole in an $80K car is really something Turns out that didn't work very well, they ended up disassembling the entire interior of the car and crawling through a small hole that's behind the seats and tinkering with the mechanism from the inside.

This is the car I'd recommend to my dad if he thought he wanted a corvette. Absolutely perfect for the old man that wants an automatic vette but will never ever ever go beyond 1/3 throttle. Turns heads, nice to sit in, and plenty fast for an old man with heart issues.